Yola Gray-Baker said her husband gave her $10 million when she learned of a financial scandal unfolding at Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) where about 40 clients were reportedly scammed out of billions of dollars. I felt the same sickness as the 1990s financial affairs of defrauding. Loans have ballooned more than 100 times. As of 2023, he still owes him $85 million.
Greybaker claimed that her husband, Milton, who was a successful building contractor at the time, used his house and two other properties as collateral to pay $10 million at 35% interest to make two contracts. They said their lives were shattered in 1994 after borrowing dollars.
Despite the court’s ruling, one of the clients was unable to pay and another refused to pay for the work.
Bakers lost four properties as a result.
Graybaker said the loan, which was processed and current, was turned over to the Financial Sector Coordinating Company (FINSAC) and the Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation (JRF).
Bakers has paid off nearly $52 million, lost all his tangible assets, including his home in St Andrew’s Grosvenor Terrace, and is still indebted to JRF.
“People lost money, property, lives and livelihoods due to the financial crisis of the 1990s, with more than 40,000 victims. My family was one,” she said. Sunday Greener last week.
“Now, in 2023, people are lost again…to unscrupulous financial practices by those who were supposed to protect them. , and yet this happens… The FSC (Financial Services Commission) is the watchdog.It was born in 2001 to prevent this.What was it doing?Jamaica is not a real country.”
overwhelming burden
Greybaker, president of the Association of Finsac de Entrepreneurs, said he personally knows people who have committed suicide because the burden of loss has hit them.
She said some died from broken hearts, while the mental health of others was also affected. Some have lost.
She is also frustrated by the still pending report from the FINSAC Commission of Inquiry, which was set up in 2008 to investigate what went wrong in the 1990s financial crisis.
She said the release of the FINSAC report would give the public a clearer picture of what happened in the 1990s.
“Are we serious? Nearly $200 million has been spent producing a report that nobody has. I’m sure we’ll never see a single one of it, and no one will go to jail, only the depositors will suffer,” she said.
Ahead of the 2007 general elections, Finance Minister Audrey Shaw promised to investigate the ordeal. It started with him late in the Bruce Golding administration in 2007 and from 2011 he extended to the Portia Simpson Miller administration in 2016. Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips said he had not received a report from the FINSAC investigation and said the government was not ready to pay any more money for its completion. We have allocated more funds for its completion, but it remains unpaid at this time.
“Too black to succeed”
Valerie Dixon’s family has also been affected by the financial sector debacle and have written a book detailing their experiences.
her book “Too Black to Succeed: The FINSAC Experience” Documents obstacles faced by the majority of black people in Jamaica. She believes that no matter how hard many people try, there will always be hurdles that prevent them from doing their best.
“I’m sorry Usain Bolt and everyone else is affected by this scam. Do you know how many people have seen their property for sale? Some refused to leave,” Dixon said.
She also regularly checks if the family’s property is for sale.
“It’s time someone paid for what they did to us,” she said.
